Friday, July 25, 2008 SM recycling market fair set Aug. 1-2
THE recycling market fair held every first Friday and Saturday of each month at SM City Bacolod has become a habit for many environmentally conscious shoppers who wish to properly dispose of their garbage.
A joint project of the SM Supermalls in cooperation with the National Solid Waste Management Committee, the event brings together shoppers and recycling companies.
Shoppers bring their paper, plastic, and electronic wastes, which are in turn purchased by recyclers.
But what do recyclers do with the items that they buy? It's amazing how these are transformed into very functional products, and how trading these have a great impact on the environment.
With the next recycling market fair this August 1 and 2 at all SM Supermalls, here's some recycling 101 on how plastic products are recycled.
Did you notice that plastic products have identification codes consisting of arrows forming a triangular shape with a number in the middle? That code is one's key to identifying that kind of plastic, which is the first step in recycling.
Water and beverage bottles, for example, are made of PET or polyethylene terephthalate; grocery bags, produce bags and food wraps are made out of low density polyethylene; and take home boxes, egg cartons and CD cases are PS or polystyrene products.
After the plastics are identified and sorted, these are washed, chopped into flakes and fed into an extruder where heat and pressure melt the plastic. The molten plastic is then formed into strands, which is then chopped into uniform pellets. These plastic pellets are then sold to manufacturing companies who can use these as raw materials for new products.
A wide range of products may be made from these plastic pellets - items for home like baskets, chairs, trays as well as construction materials like PVC sewer pipes, flooring and window frames. These can also be made into plastic bags, CD and video cassette cases, garden furniture, fiber filling for sleeping bags, and office furniture.
What is saved when recycling plastics? Recycling plastics conserves nonrenewable fossil fuels as plastic production uses eight percent of the world's oil production. It also reduces the consumption of energy and the volume of solid waste going to landfills as well as reduces emissions of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide.
